CASE STUDIES 2025

What is Critical International Planning?

Brooke Frierson on skatebording in Jakarta, Indonesia says: planning situates everyone as a producer of space, embracing the importance of creativity and movement as essential to challenging hegemonic and oppressive structures.

Laura Botero on the extractive pressures over mining in Amazonas says: an approach to spatial and territorial governance that prioritizes the lived experiences, agency, and knowledge systems of marginalized communities that are often excluded from dominant planning processes.

Iffat Baki Bushra on community participation and placemaking in Sunamganj, Bangladesh says: it incorporates local knowledge, traditional practices, and emotional elements into the planning process to foster a sense of belonging.

Huiying Cui on placemaking in a mining town in Morococha, Peru says: it recognizes people as planners and values local knowledge production and collaborative approaches.

Gerlin Leu on elevating desirability through community cleanup in Kampung Warna-Warni in Malang, Indonesia says: it is the everyday, community-driven process of giving meaning, strengthening connections, and increasing the desirability of a place.

Dalia Vazquez on community resilience and water governance in Puebla, Mexico says: it challenges Western development models by emphasizing local autonomy, self-determination, and active community participation.

Chaochen Fan on public spaces for youth in Sierra Leone says: empower marginalized communities to dream and speak.

César Ponce on informal transport infrastructure in Lima, Peru says: an embedded and continuous process in which people´s spatiality is organized, taking into account power relations, the group’s local history, and the diverse scale interactions that affect them.

Briana Cohen on biocultural restoration of Mount Kenya Forest says: a collaborative practice between local inhabitants, the land, community organizers, and planners to listen to diverse knowledges, engage in participatory processes, and co-create vibrant livelihoods to meet the community’s everyday needs.

Aparna Rajeevan on the politics of public spaces and cultural identity in Delhi says: addressing the needs and aspirations of diverse communities while respecting historical and heritage contexts.

Aditya Bharadwaj on the spiritual commune in Southern India says: the harmonizing of universal ideals of inclusion with the practices and the way of life that makes each space beautifully unique.

Tetyana Samiliv on Informal Economy and Collaboration in Ghana says: uncovers assumptions in planning and its link to colonialism and western ideologies, recognizing the existence of multiple types of knowledge and planning.

Sergio Morales on informal markets’ and placemaking in Mexico says: “Asking, we walk” — as the Zapatistas assert. We move forward through questions.

Mohammad Arfar Razi on community-led and placemaking in Bangladesh says: to advance communites’ sense of ownership of their place so they participate in their own community development.

Mitchell Stevenson on Tourism and Traditional Culture in Indonesia says: finding solutions to employ the positives of modernization while preventing erasure and minimization.

Melanie R. Ball on Cross-Border Co-production in Mexico says: being accountable to the many ways of being and many forms of knowledge that can contribute to planning, beyond the spatial and the rational.

Matheus Bechtlufft Cardoso on favela urban heat and green roof in Brazil says: is a response to oppression and standardization, where imaginative and transgressive actions provide freedom for those who have been forced to keep quiet.

Marrell Jones on subversive planning and sport mega-events in Brazil says: challenges the conventional Western modes of planning by presenting aesthetics, narratives, and socio-spatial projects that are rooted in rights based, anti-racism, decolonial theories.

Maria Rubio on community education and storytelling in Brazil says: live and resist, fight to exist.

Luciana Lemos on insurgent planning and art in Brazil says: challenges the way cities are traditionally planned and emphasizes the power of people to transform the spaces they live.

Lama Ab Shama on gardening and place-making in Palestine says: by triggering nostalgia and creating memories, critical international planning enhances community development and creates a collective sense of belonging and place attachment.

Francis Russell on self-governance and environmental justice in Puerto Rico says: to render the “Planner” in the form of the paid professional obsolete, acknowledging that marginalized peoples in the Global South are already organizing and designing spaces to fit their needs.

Daniel Moriarty on Boda-bodas and transportation politics in Uganda says: the rejection of conventional models of planning in favor of more participatory research and the development of more equitable solutions for communities across informal and formal spaces.

Alejandra Quintana on architecture and place-making in Brasilia says: embracing the uniqueness of cultures while advocating and developing new inclusive solutions for underrepresented communities.

Christian Fores on insurgent planning by the Trans community in Rio De Janeiro says:
Deconstructing the rationalities of objectivity and expertise associated with positivism, seeking an empathetic approach to planning that includes the voices of the most marginalized communities in decision-making processes.

Ciara D Ayala on radical place-making in asylum tent settlements on Mexico-U.S. Border says: Critical international planning is humanist, fluid, and flexible.

Frank Mabalatan on reforming a service industry to serve the people in Archipelagic, Philippines says:
Returning and restoring.

Maureen Rendon on Place-making and alternative development in Oventic, Chiapas says: Critical international planning is a theoretical underpinning to technical knowledge that is rooted in bringing transformative change that is people-centered, lasting, and that brings healing to communities that have been impacted by globalization, neoliberalism, and displacement.

Minori Matsusawa on community-driven approach to slum-upgrading projects in Bangkok, Thailand says: A process to acknowledge and embrace fluid, flexible, and dynamic urban forms.

Naomi Nelson on Community-based Tourism (CBT) in Bali says: It is indigenous, chaord, and holds space for future generations.

Rand Makarem on Beirut’s insurgency and placemaking efforts to take back the city says: An understanding of the transformational power associated with participatory and self-governance approaches.

Yuhana Khan on self-governance in Marikana, Cape Town says: People-based approach to planning where community members provide creative solutions in collaboration with planners to achieve goals with a decolonized mindset.

Aabiya Baqai on vernacular architecture in Saudi Arabia says:
It is letting communities be.

Dominica Whitesell on African traders in Guangzhou, China says: Engaging with embodied, evolving, and everyday world building.

Hunter Maples on informality and climate resilience in Bangladesh says:
It is flexible, fluid, and adaptable.

Jongmoon Lee on new cities in South Korea says:
A window to see the world without prejudice.

Juan Tiney Chirix on permaculture and indigenous epistemologies in Zimbabwe says:
A way for imagining the un-geographic and unplanned beyond the “normal.”

Leon Staines Díaz on infrastructure development in Colombia says:
A practice that responds to specific conditions, contexts, resources, and differences, calling for a hermeneutical approach that requires embracing uniqueness.

Raviya Mysorewala on informal waste collection services in Brazil says:
It is not as simple as a straight line.

Sari Albornoz on insurgent women’s collectives in Mexico says:
Collective action against hegemonic and oppressive boundaries, which fuels learning, liberation, and empowerment, and enables further action.

Alexandra Lamiña on Amazonian indigenous planning in Ecuador says: Process-making, people’s daily practices to build learning between South-North.

Jorge Losoya on grassroots planning in Mexico says:
Process for advocating, including, and promoting solutions for excluded voices.

Jorge Zapata on planning and informality in Mexico says:
Discipline that questions practices and theories in social inequality.

Laura Atlas on women development and planning in Sri Lanka says:
Challenging patriarchal hegemony and neoliberalism through feminism.

Louis Alrcorn on informal transportation in Nigeria says:
Recognizing local epistemologies to question techno-managerial processes.

Mark Werner on mega-projects and vertical slums in Africa says:
Understanding cultures and epistemologies to influence community.

Mary Stycos on water commoditization in Mexico says:
Challenging power inequities to advocate, include, and develop solutions.

Michelle Parke on illegality and resistance in Palestinian land says:
Utilizing informal practices to challenge dominant hegemonic power.

Raksha Vasudevan on community development in Argentina says:
Centering lived experiences of those typically marginalized in planning.

Samira Bashar on slum upgrading in Bangladesh says:
Approaching a context-based, place and culture-centric for community action.

Brian Eggert on Cuba’s information black market says:
A collaborative process of constant reimagination, reinterpretation, and revision.

Caroline Daigle on Tahrir Square says:
A creative rethinking of public spaces and human networks.

Cassie Gianni on public transportation in Colombia says:
A reconsideration and linking of bodies, mobilities, and space.

Jose Guzman on World Heritage Sites in Chile says:
Providing insights from different urban experiences and diverse regions.

Julia Duranti-Martinez on housing sites in Colombia says:
Complicating Western conceptions of truth and masculinist objectivities.

Raksha Vasudevan on cultural practices in Palestine says:
Understanding everyday encounters to forge transformative practices.

Sebastian Gallardo on afro-diasporic planning in Brazil says:
Self-reflective practice rooted in people’s local knowledges.

Stephen Zigmund on migrant workers spaces in Hong Kong says:
Practice based on understanding how societies are bound up together.

Welcome to Critical Perspectives on International Planning

This site is a project of the Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas School of Architecture.

The case studies presented on this site were prepared by graduate students as part of a seminar course dedicated to critical perspectives on international planning, focusing in particular on planning in contexts of urban informality.

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Auroville: City of the Future Perpetuating the Past
Pedagogy
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References
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Casa Nem in Rio de Janeiro
Boda-bodas and informal transportation politics in Kampala, Uganda
Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo
Passing the Onus of Responsibility
“Space Reproduction” in Jalazone Refugee Camp
The Planning Paradox of the Olympics
Tourism threatens traditional culture in Molas, Indonesia
La Tianguis Disidente in Mexico City
Kayayei as the backbone of Accra’s informal economy
Centering the coastline: Planning and the struggle for Puerto Rico’s coast
The Politics of Public Spaces and Cultural Identity in Delhi
Decolonial Planning Futures: Biocultural Restoration of Mount Kenya Forest
Informal Transport as Social Infrastructure in Lima, Perú
Las Ultimas Gotas de Los Ojitos: Community Resilience and Water Governance in Puebla, Mexico
Creating Public Spaces for Youth in Sierra Leone
Elevating Desirability Through Community Cleanup: Kampung Warna-Warni in Malang, Indonesia
Rights to the Pueblo against Relocation: Place-Making in a Mining Town, Morococha, Peru
Submersible Embankment Project: Community Participation and Placemaking in Sunamganj, Bangladesh
Gavilán Community and the Struggle over Mining
CASE STUDIES 2025
Movement as Insurgent Spatial Appropriation in Jakarta, Indonesia
Flooding and Collective Action in Bañado Sur, Paraguay
Placemaking in unwelcoming environments: the case of Día de Los Muertos in San Antonio, Texas
Insurgent planning through everyday resistance and community practice in Dharavi, Mumbai
Urban Occupation of Rosa Leão, Brazil
Stormwater Floods and the Politics of Elite Urbanism In Bwaise
Manggahan Low-Rise Building Project in Manila, Philippines
Buzuruna Juzuruna: The Generational Right to Food Sovereignty
Railways in Myanmar: Where Coloniality and Democratic Resistance Converge
A community-led model for urban regeneration in Jangsu Village, South Korea
Formalizing Informality: Heritage and Everyday Life in Singapore’s Hawker Centers
Urban Farming and Community Agency in Kibera, Nairobi
Heritage Politics and Contested Reconstruction in Aleppo, Syria
The Manguinhos Community Garden: Transforming cracolândia into a productive landscape
Community-Led Visual Storytelling in Dhaka’s Informal Settlements

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